Anyone who's read the original Walking Dead comic series will remember The Governor as a vile creature who killed, maimed and raped without impunity.

David Morrissey's television take has always been a more complex beast, but he was certainly no angel and when he was spotted lurking outside the grounds of the prison at the tail end of last week's episode, you could be forgiven for thinking he was plotting some terrible new assault on Rick and the other survivors…

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Instead, in latest outing 'Live Bait', The Walking Dead does the last thing you'd expect it to - the show redeems The Governor.

After tearing down what little is left of his fallen society, the one-time dictator hits the road, re-emerging some months later as a shell of his former self - gaunt, bedraggled and with facial hair so bushy and unkempt that it would make even Homeland's Saul bristle with envy.

A broken man, The Governor is clearly full of self-loathing - as evidenced by the scene in which he removes himself from his own family photo to preserve the 'purity' of his wife and daughter's image. In these early scenes, he speaks only a handful of lines, but even while mostly silent, David Morrissey has enormous screen presence and he lends huge weight to every little scrap of dialogue.

Holing up with an amiable clan, The Governor adopts the alias of "Brian Herriot" - the name of a missing and clearly much-missed man - and through his sweet relationship with the young Megan and blossoming romance with the sweet Lilly, learns to let go of his dark past and becomes part of a new family unit. He's almost a father again.

Instead of taking the expected path - having The Governor come to more and more resemble his comic book counterpart - The Walking Dead is instead heading in the opposition direction and humanising him. This week, we get a glimpse of the man he might have been before Woodbury.

But you can't run from the past forever and The Governor's history has already caught up with him, as the 'family' fall into the path of Martinez (Jose Pablo Cantillo) - once one of his most-trusted allies…

There's still plenty more story to tell though between where 'Live Bait' ends up and where we picked up with The Governor in 'Internment', and that's my one big quibble with The Walking Dead this week.

Devoting the entirety of this episode to his story makes sense given his preceding five-week absence, but next week's 'Dead Weight' looks set to continue filling in the gaps in The Governor's story and there's a real risk that The Walking Dead could irritate and alienate its fans the longer it puts proceedings at the prison - chiefly Daryl's reaction to Carol's banishment - on pause.

But that's not a criticism of 'Live Bait' itself, which is another strong entry in The Walking Dead's fourth season. As seems to be the standard this year, zombie action is kept to a minimum and, in place of the usual bloodshed and mayhem, we're handed another in a string of moody and fascinating character studies.

- 'Live Bait' is loosely inspired by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga's Walking Dead spinoff books, 'Rise of the Governor' and 'The Road to Woodbury' - the two novels that David Morrissey has named as his chief source of inspiration in playing The Governor.
- "I'm a pirate!" - Who knew The Governor could be so much fun?
- Is it just us or does Lilly (Audrey Marie Anderson) bear a striking resemblance to Maggie (Lauren Cohan)?
- The track that accompanied The Governor's fiery rampage was 'The Last Pale Light In The West' by Ben Nichols - formerly of American country-punk rock band Lucero.

What did you think of the latest instalment of The Walking Dead? Share your thoughts below.